which is the best song ever?

Subject: which is the best song ever?
From: Andy7
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 04:41 PM

Which song, in your opinion, is the best song ever? And why?

It doesn't have to be a folk song, any genre can be included.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 04:59 PM

"When the Boys are on Parade", by Marcus Turner. Certainly the most skilfully written song ever.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: mg
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 07:20 PM

The ash grove in welsh...

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: robomatic
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 07:58 PM

Og would clap a couple of boulders together. I know that 'boulder' sounds big but you had to be there. Og could knock the boulders together and if you complained he'd knock a couple of heads together and maybe get more resonance out of 'em. We didn't have the word 'resonance' at the time, but we recognized how the hard edge of the chants came back to us from the gods in the cliff walls or at the end of the longer caverns.
But when the women and girls joined with a chorus, and the entire clan sang it was - indescribable.

It's all because we were being sung to by the tree frogs, and we were singing back to them.

We didn't have a god at the time. We had trees and some hanging fruits, and the fungi that made the light come inside our eyes.

And when they all got going, there was no stopping until Og put the stones down.

Nothing like it since, absolutely nothing.

As for the first dances ever, they were absolute rubbish. A good waltz is about as good as it's gotten.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Elmore
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 12:01 AM

Best song ever? I could give you 38, but I couldn't {or wouldn't} give you one.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 04:31 AM

There's no such thing. Dumb question. You should ask "What's your favourite song ever ?"

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 05:01 AM

The Hokey-Cokey. That is what it's all about.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Andy7
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 08:28 PM

Haha, yes ... if the 'best song ever' is measured by how much fun and laughter it's given to groups of partying people over the years, the Hokey-Cokey will definitely be a prime contender!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 08:55 PM

A Pair Of Brown Eyes. Fiesta. Sickbed of Cuchulainn. Summer in Siam. Rainy Night In Soho. Sally MacClennane.

Shane, I love you, baby!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 08:57 PM

Though turning to Woody...

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: olddude
Date: 26 Apr 18 - 09:16 PM

Dead skunk in the middle of the road

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Workingtonman
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 03:40 AM

i like a curlew on a misty morning

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 03:43 AM

I tried to pick one but it's like asking how long is a piece of string. It's an impossible task for me as each of my would-be choices has something special that the others don't.
I think I'm going to have to pass on this one.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 03:44 AM

Fried or boiled?

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 03:51 AM

Sorry - That last comment was to Peter's 'I like a curlew' remark.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 06:57 AM

The Greenfields of France

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 07:00 AM

Sorry... GUEST was me!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: gillymor
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 10:21 AM

A Pair of Brown Eyes is also one of my favorites as well as another Pogue's song Thousands Are Sailing (not to be confused with an older immigration song of the same name) written by the late Phillip Chevron.
Worthy contenders are Ian Tyson's Someday Soon and Woody's Pastures of Plenty.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 11:54 AM

I absolutely agree about Phil Chevron's amazing song. I know it from the records released after the TV series Bringing It All Back Home with Phil singing it. Agree about Woody's song too, one the finest among many.

I have a soft spot for Jimmy McCarthy's songs too but I daren't mention any in case Jack Campin's listening! ;-)

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 11:58 AM

No, can't just be one: I'd give you a different answer on a different day.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Apr 18 - 08:27 PM

Grr. What happened to me message! Never mind, here it is, pottedly: I just thought of Nic Jones singing Ten Thousand Miles on that amazing album we've long been deprived of, The Noah's Ark Trap. Or Annachie Gordon, though it must be the version on that album. Or Clyde Water, utterly sublime, on Penguin Eggs, happily available.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Apr 18 - 11:03 AM

...also, to me, Canadee-I-O on Penguin Eggs, Steve.

Richard Thompson has written some gems like 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and Bees Wing.

Mark Knofler wrote what I think of as a modern day classic in Done With Bonaparte.

So many great Dylan songs, Farewell Angelina for one.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Apr 18 - 04:31 PM

1952 Vincent as sung by Dick Gaughan, and Beeswing as sung by Tom McConville with Pauline Cato. Also, Galway To Graceland as sung by Ron Kavana. Entirely a matter of taste, but I nearly always prefer Richard's beautiful songs sung by someone else... :-(

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: leeneia
Date: 29 Apr 18 - 10:29 PM

The Whiffenpoof Song, but don't sing it earnestly.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 12:00 AM

You Have to Be Carefuly Taught
Rodgers and Hammerstein
"South Pacific' musical 1949
(Sometimes excluded from some recordings and performances...)

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.


You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!


Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 02:46 AM

'The Birdie Song', surely?

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Will Fly
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 04:06 AM

Roast or fried? (again)?

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 07:52 AM

Maybe it's the guitar player in me but I prefer the way RT does the above mentioned songs.
Gaughan is one of those singers that could convincingly perform the phone book...
his version of Leon Rosselson's "World Turned Upside Down" or Burn's "Now Westlin' Winds" or "McCrimmon's Lament", among others, deserves mention here.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 09:29 AM

Maybe not the best, but surely the most succinct

Jim Carroll

Roseberry to his Lady says
My hinnie and my succour
O shall we do the thing you ken
Or shall we take our supper?         

Wi' modest face, sae fu' o' grace
Replied the bonny Lady
My noble lord, do as you please
But supper isna ready.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Apr 18 - 09:32 AM

Or
Jim Carroll

WAD YE DO THAT? Tune—"John Anderson, my jo."
An old song before Burns' s time.

Gudewife, when your gudeman's frae hame,
?Might I but be sae bauld,
As come into your bed-chamber,
?When winter nights are cauld?
As come into your bed-chamber,
?When nights are cauld and wat,
And lie down in your gudeman's stead,
?Gudewife, wad ye do that?

Young man, if ye should be so kind,
?When my gudeman's frae hame,
As come into my bed-chamber.
?Where I am laid my lane.
And lie down in my gudeman's stead,
?Young man, I'll tell you what,
He fucks me five times ilka night.
?Young man, wad ye do that?

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: radriano
Date: 01 May 18 - 04:43 PM

An exercise in futility.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Acorn4
Date: 02 May 18 - 07:16 AM

I'm really glad no one has said "Imagine" by John Lennon!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 04 May 18 - 08:21 AM

<"An exercise in futility" -Radriano>

Can you whistle a few bars to see if I know it? ;-)

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Andy7
Date: 04 May 18 - 05:00 PM

Hahaha!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Thompson
Date: 06 May 18 - 05:14 AM

There is only one songs. All songs are an expression of it.

Subject: RE: 'Best song ever ...'?
From: GUEST,bilrux
Date: 07 May 18 - 12:26 PM

If I have to name only one: Hoagy Carmichael's "Stardust."

Subject: RE: 'Best song ever ...'?
From: Johnny J
Date: 07 May 18 - 06:52 PM

Re Petula Clark, I preferred "Sailor"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERy5sp3-jf0

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Mike in Brunswick
Date: 08 May 18 - 12:13 AM

How can I miss you if you won't go away?

Mike

Subject: RE: 'Best song ever ...'?
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 08 May 18 - 03:10 AM

Working at Heathrow, we got notice that a big star from the world of music was about to arrive. Sure enough, we saw an impossibly glamorous man join the EU passport queue - immaculate suit, impeccable hairstyle, coat slung over one shoulder - obviously a super-star. It turned out to be the publicist Claude Wolff, and meanwhile his wife, Petula Clark, passed unnoticed in the British queue wearing a woolly hat, scruffy overcoat and trainers.

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 May 18 - 04:08 AM

Glad to see Dan Hicks here...

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 09 May 18 - 07:28 PM

Don't usually bother with these (subjective) but for me the best song ever would have to be

Somewhere Over The Rainbow from the Wizard of Oz - so positive.

Second place would go to Desperado from the Eagles - it always puts things back into perspective for me.

So now you may suspect my Achilles Heel but no - that is actually Roy Bailey - don't tell him!!

Subject: RE: which is the best song ever?
From: Andy7
Date: 09 May 18 - 08:03 PM

I also love 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'; such a well crafted and beautiful song!

It's been a part of my repertoire for some time, to be shared when the time seems right.